Epitome
by scarlet letters in the snow
Summary: He didn't know about his Father's past, he didn't even know that his mother once was a Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village. All he knew was that when he closed his eyes...sometimes he could still see.. OC centric, with tenten's flashbacks. R&R .
1. Chapter 1

**This story is not mainly focused on Tenten. Warning, if you're looking for a story where Neji is alive this is not for you. The use of Tenten's flashbacks are to set the stage of the story and also to help shed light on the plot further on. This story will be mainly focused on Tenten and Neji's son. **

**Thank you for choosing to read my FANFICTION, please be sure to leave a review & tell me if I made any spelling or geographical errors in my placement of the countries, although I checked a naruto verse world map first, the link is at the bottom of the page, it holds all sorts of interesting information:).**

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_**Flash forward**_

_9 years after the fallout of the Fourth Great Shinobi War a boy sits beside his mother, shooting her a questioning glance. She smiles as she adjusts his small hands around the whetstone and helps him sharpen a kunai, her almond eyes filled with happiness. He follows her instruction and grins up at her, the results of her patience paying off. _

_The kunai is perfectly sharp._

* * *

He didn't know about his Father's past, he didn't even know that his mother once was a Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village. All he knew was that when he closed his eyes...sometimes he could still see.

* * *

**Flashback**

_Her eyes were dry, but inside she was a storm of emotion._

_**How could he have died?**_

_If only she could've been there herself, maybe this wouldn't have happened. _

_'How could he have done that? Why didn't he just let Naruto- No.' Tenten shook her head to push the horrible and bitter thought away._

_She knew that it wasn't right for her to think that way, she had no right to wish death upon anyone. She knew it was all apart of being a shinobi. She knew that Naruto was too much of an asset for Konoha to lose, but knowing facts and feeling feelings were different. A shinobi was supposed to set aside personal feelings; love, hate, lust, agony. All of these things were non-existent in the shinobi way of life. But Tenten couldn't push them down, so she hid them from the world. _

_She watched Lee cradle their teammate in his arms. Crying out in despair, tears running down his cheeks, she watched all of this with solemn features. Lee cried for the loss of his 'eternal' rival, he cried for his teammate, his best friend, and the only person to ever be close enough to resemble a brother. Tenten felt the same anguish: partner,companion, friend, and even more than for Lee...he was her lover(if only for one night). How could Lee know the pain she was going through? No one scolded Lee for his panicked cries, and no one praised her for the ability to keep control. Perhaps they knew that more than Lee, she was suffering a different kind of pain. Gai sensei simply told him to stop, and that it was enough. Tenten agreed..they were in a war, there would be plenty of time for tears when it was over._

_For the duration of the war she fought, and with each challenge that she faced she fought more and more recklessly. Flinging herself into the fight, she wished only to join Neji in the afterlife. But no matter how hard she tried to die, death never claimed her. Branches broke the bodies of her comrades, but never pierced her own flesh._

_When the battle was over it took several months to clean up the after math, and after finishing her duties on one particular day she was brought to the infirmary after passing out from heat exhaustion. It was Sakura who was tending to her, and as her hands with glowing chakra ran over Tenten's stomach she frowned._

_"Tenten, there is a separate chakra signature emanating from inside you..are you-?" Sakura let the question hang in the air for many moments before continuing. "I'm pulling you from active duty immediately, you can't continue in your condition."_

_Tenten reached out and grabbed her pink haired comrade by her vest, __pulling her closer. Her eyes were shadowed and her voice was soft. __"Sakura," Tenten pleaded,"Don't tell anyone."_

_Sakura's frowned deepened, but nevertheless she nodded. _

_"Was it his?" Sakura asked, but she already knew the answer._

_Tenten nodded softly and left the medic's tent with orders to have a good nights rest, and to try to take it easy. __She was gone by morning, and no one noticed for a week. By that time it was too late. _

_She was long gone._

_It took her months to find a place to settle down, and by then she was starting to show more and more. She decided to settle down in a small village surrounded by a bamboo forest, Mori no Chushin, where she was greeted warmly and given a home. Of course she never told anyone(with the exception of Ikuto) that she was from Konohagakure. Or that she was a shinobi. All she ever told anyone was that her village had been plagued by war, her husband had died, and that she was in desperate search of a home._

_She even changed her name, so no one would recognize her, and she never wore her hair in the signature high buns of her childhood._

_She chose the name Ren Fujikawa._

_When it was time for the baby to come she received many things, including a small home not too far outside the sight of the village, Ikuto and his older Chunin students had built it for her. The women also had weaved together strips of bamboo and made her a basket that her baby could either sleep in, or be carried around in(which was really handy once she got a job working in the rice fields). She also received dry portions of food, and seeds to plant her own small herb and vegetable garden. Tenten cried when they gave her a hand stitched summer kimono, and she vowed to repay them all for their kindness._

_In her time spent before moving into her own home she learned many things; like how to crochet blankets and baby clothes, how to prepare fruits and vegetables for her baby to eat, and how to cook among many other things. _

_Tenten gave birth to her son a few weeks after moving into her new house, Ikuto and two of the women had luckily come by to check on her when they found her laying in her small garden, her broken water seeping into the soil. Five hours after collapsing in the garden she held her son, and as he opened his small eyes she gasped..._

* * *

Hideki toed his heel out of his sandal, sliding the door shut behind him.

"I'm home mother!" He called, walking strait through the house to the back where he slid open yet another door.

"I know." She said softly, her brown eyebrows arching highly as she smiled. "How was training with Ikuto sensei?"

Hideki's eyes lit up mischieviously, and he sat beside her.

"I learned so many things today!" He exclaimed, his hands flying into the air. "He showed me how to perfect the Bunshin no Jutsu! And Kawarimi no Jutsu! He even showed me Henge no Jutsu and he said I was a pro at all three!" He jumped up and smiled brightly, his brown hair falling out of its loose ponytail. "Ikuto sensei said I was a prodigy child!"

Hideki's smile faltered as his mother stood up quietly and left the room, her eyes glossed over. He followed her into the house, tugging on her summer kimono.

"Mom?" He asked quietly, "What's wrong?"

She didn't answer, but only sat at the table and poured herself a cup of tea.

Hideki felt like he should leave her alone, and that was usually a good idea when she was acting this way. So he packed his pouches with the special kunai that his mother had specifically made for him and headed off to do some practice, after all Ikuto sensei did call him a prodigy.

* * *

The trees in the forest beside his house were tall and thin, and his mother told him it was called bamboo. She showed him how to make many things; canteens, bombs, utensils, and shelter. Everything could be made from bamboo if you really had the desire to use it. Infact most of his home was made from bamboo, even his bed frame!

An eerie mist rolled about on the forest floor, but none of this bothered Hideki because he had grown up in this place. His mother told him they were located in a country called Kusa(Grass country). It was centered in between four larger countries; Fire country, Rain country, Earth country, and the Waterfall country. He didn't really know about these places, after all he'd never really gotten to go to a real school. He lived in a small almost unknown village and was actually the only child his age to be trained in the art of the Shinobi(not including the older Chunin teams, Whose sensei's were actually just Jounin who were forced into the job). Ikuto sensei was the only teacher at the school with dirt floors, and Hideki was his only genin student, but he felt like if there had been even twenty kids, that he himself would be the best.

Hideki pulled off his forehead protector and rubbed the symbol of swaying grass thoughtfully.

'It should have been bamboo instead..'He thought to himself.

Within minutes he found the special clearing that his mother had cut out for him, and he began throwing the kunai at the targets she had made. He hit his mark every time. With pale pearly white eyes he examined his surroundings, and he let his lids slide shut. He didn't know the name of whatever his ability was, but he could close his eyes and sometimes...he could still see.

It first happened once when he was scared as a small child. He had been playing in the bamboo forest while his mother was clearing out a spot, and a strange black and white animal started towards him. At first Hideki wasn't worried, and he even reached out to touch the animal, but when he heard his mother screaming his name and the creature roar, he ran away and hid behind a boulder. In his frightened state he crouched with his eyes shut tightly, but he could see through the rock, through the bear, and he could see his mother as she flipped open a scroll and skewered the animal with a barrage of weapons. Later he learned that his mother once was a shinobi, and that was what made him decide to become one too. He never told his mom about what he could do, he didn't want her to think he was strange.

His mother used to train with him before she brought him to the school, but now she just stayed at home, or worked in the vegetable fields. She started staying home during training after she had taught him taijutsu, and he had become so good that sometimes he could catch her off guard. Now he only ever trained with Ikuto sensei, and he never landed a hit on the older man.

Hideki shook his head to clear his mind.

With his eyes shut he ran through the trees, throwing kunai at all sorts of targets. His mother had logs, posters, and even manequins hidden in the bamboo stalks. He was happy that she had spent so much time on it for him, but he wished more than anything that she would practice with him, and maybe teach him how to summon weapons with those big scrolls.

Hideki wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, feeling the veins on his head as they protruded from his skin. He blinked his eyes a few times before his second vision went away, but sighed when it finally did. He wished that someone could teach him more about it, but who could? Ikuto sensei never told him about anything of that nature, and he was sure his mom wouldn't know either..after all...she had brown eyes. Normal eyes.

Hideki pushed himself up on his hands and knees and crawled over to the stream running through the clearing, he watched his reflection dancing on the surface. He observed his long brown hair that he always kept tied back, his long slender nose and his small pouty lips, but the most striking feature was his eyes. They were white, but reflected back pale blue or sometimes a lavender color, and his pupil was a large discolored splotch in the center. Nothing like his mothers'. In fact the village doctor had told his mother it was a miracle that he could see at all, and that he would probably go blind before the age of five. Hideki was now 10 years old, and he thought he could see perfectly fine.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the bamboo leaves rustling strangely, and he secured his headband around his head once again as he turned towards the sound. To his surprise he was met with a strange sight; a man in a green jumpsuit with strange large eyebrows and a funny haircut stopped in front of him. And as he took a fighting stance the strange man muttered-

"How can this be? Could it be that my eternal rival has been reincarnated?"

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**Tbc.**

**Tell me what you think.**

**I listened to eyes on me from Final Fantasy. Ocarina version from heathersocarina on YouTube while I wrote this.**

***Mori no Chushin means - heart of the forest in Japanese.***

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	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again!**

**Time for the second chapter and boy is it a doozie. **

**Lets get on with it shall we? Sorry if it's rather silly compared to the first but I -well it's ... you'll see. Lol.**

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_"-Could it be my eternal rival has been reincarnated?"_

* * *

Hideki stared at the man before him in shock as he fell to his knees. Those ridiculously bushy eyebrows scrunching up as tears over flowed from his eyes.

"It must be- the almighty power of youth!" He exclaimed joyfully, but his head drooped down almost to his knees as he wept.

Hideki felt an awkward tingle at the base of his neck, and the slightest taste of annoyance. He didn't have any idea what this man was shouting about, but it was really starting to freak him out. When he had finally had enough he reached into his pouch and withdrew a kunai, holding it at the ready.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" Hideki called out in the bravest voice he could conjure. He jumped when the man sprang to his feet with a smile, and he took a step back as the man stepped forward.

"I am Rock Lee at your service!" Lee bowed low, his eyes never leaving Hideki's."And I am on my way back home from a very long mission!"

"A mission?" Hideki repeated, raising his kunai just a bit higher. "So you're a Shinobi then?"

Lee laughed, throwing his head back before taking a seat on the wet, mossy, forest floor.

"Yes indeed! And I can see from your Hitai-ate that you are as well!"

Hideki ground his teeth together, his sweaty palms sliding up and down the hilt of his kunai. "If you're a Shinobi..where is your forehead protector then?" He adjusted the kunai in his hand, "You're not some rogue shinobi are you?" He asked suspiciously.

He watched as Rock Lee shook his head while searching around himself for something.

"Oh!" Lee exclaimed, standing up to reveal it hanging from his waist. "It's right here!"

Hideki squinted as the metal reflected the sunlight, and he looked at the strange symbol on its surface. Where had he seen that before? It was so familiar that it was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't spit it out. It seemed like it wasn't a bad thing, and maybe he did remember something about that sign. It belonged to the Fire country, to what was that place- Konoha! Hideki smiled to himself, relaxing his stance a bit.

"So we are allies?" He asked, looking at the strange man -Rock Lee- quizzically.

He wasn't so sure that he could believe him, but why would he wear a Konoha hitai-ate if he wasn't a Konoha shinobi? Hideki supposed that he could trust this man, if only just a little now that he knew they were allies. If this man hurt anyone in Grass country it would be a big deal, and he didn't think that he would want a whole village after him since he was alone.

"Yes we are allies, and I was just heading to a village around here to look for an inn." Lee said, popping his knuckles as he stood up. "You wouldn't happen to be from the village Mori no Chushin?"

Hideki nodded his head and flinched as the man suddenly bolted to stand in front of him, "Could you be my guide then? I'm afraid I've lost my map."

Hideki scrunched his nose in thought, he knew he wasn't supposed to bring just anyone to the village. It was a dangerous thing, trusting strangers..but something inside of him told him it was the right thing to do, and so he agreed. "But just so you know Lee-san, My sensei will want to question you and if you do anything that-"

Lee cut him off with a heartfelt proclamation of innocence.

"No! I assure you that my reason for being here is perfectly honest and honorable!" He nodded as he spoke, and the smile on his face was so gentle. It felt so familiar and sincere, like something he had always known but never seen before.

The only happy faces he ever had seen were that of his master and the other villagers. Smiles at home were far and few between, they were so few in number that they were almost forgettable. Hideki shook his head and looked over at the tall man beside himself, admiring his hitai-ate and his strange faded green vest. He was a very strange man indeed, but he seemed good enough.

They walked well until dusk, until they appeared at Hideki's home. He held a hand up to Lee and told him to please wait outside while he went in to fetch his mother.

She was sitting on a cushion in the main living area with her head in her hands and a picture resting on the low table that she sat beside. She immediately snatched the photo before he was close enough to see it, and she shoved it into her silken robes. She looked at him with questioning eyes and Hideki felt himself shrinking under her scrutiny.

"I brought a man back with me mother, he is a shinobi-" Before the words could leave his mouth he watched his mother's back straighten, and her body fling towards the sliding door. She ripped it open with such fluidity and grace that he was thrown for a loop, and he rushed after her. She had somehow procured a handful of kunai from the folds of her kimono, and she had flung them at his new acquaintance without the bat of an eyelash.

"Mother!" Hideki screamed as he rushed towards the strange man in spandex, he could feel the white hot crackle of fear strike through his heart. But the kunai never hit their mark, they struck the ground just centimeters from Lee's sandaled feet. Standing between the two he looked back and forth, his mothers light brown eyes caught up in the strange and wild eyes of the mysterious shinobi. The tension in the air was palpable, and his mother looked strangely broken, like a child who was caught doing something they knew they shouldn't be.

"Tenten," Lee whispered, his voice was barely heard over the whistling of the wind, but Hideki heard. He stared at his mother in wide eyed shock as the man dressed in green swept her up into an embrace, crying out in some incomprehensible language. "Our lost lotus! I've been searching so long!"

The white eyed boy watched as his mothers' expression softened, and tears formed in her own eyes. Tenten was quiet through the entirety of Lee's bawling and proclamations of success, and she even wrapped her arms around him. "Shh, Lee." She cooed to the man, her voice was too soft- too foreign for her son to comprehend.

"What?" He said in a shrill voice, "How do you know this-this weirdo?" He screeched as he stomped his feet on the ground. "You were just about to kill him and now you're holding him like that!" He grabbed his hair in frustration. "I thought you were going to kill him mom! What is going on?"

The two adults disentangled themselves and stood back, they stood too close together. A feral growl left Hideki's throat as he rushed to his mother, his balled fists beating against her stomach in frustration. "I was so scared." He sobbed into her kimono, not really feeling her slender arms wrap around his shaking body.

The Konoha shinobi stood back from them with barely controlled excitement, but he held his ground. As Tenten pulled her son out of their embrace she looked over at Lee, her eyes were guilty and full of remorse. She couldn't bring herself to make an excuse, the proof stood right before them (if only lee could put the pieces together). She didn't want to talk about _him_ infront of her son, she didn't want to talk about anything, but there was no way to escape from her ex-teammate now. She hadn't even felt him coming until he had already arrived, although she would know that chakra anywhere. She hadn't been expecting it, she didn't think they would still be searching for her after ten years.

She turned to Hideki and sternly ordered him to go and find Ikuto sensei.

"B-but you-" He started, stopping when he saw the seriousness in her gaze "Fine!" He wound up shouting back at her in angry defiance. He flitted away in a stream of color before the dense foliage swallowed him up, and for a long time Tenten couldn't take her eyes off of the patch of ground where he had been standing.

"It's been a while, Lee-San." She said while quietly turning to him.

The happiness that bubbled from his aura hadn't dissipated, but his look became guarded. That was something she wasn't accustomed to, it must be something new. She watched as his eyebrows furrowed and the gears began to grind in overdrive.

"H-He is Neji's son.."

So he wasn't as foolish as she had remembered. Tenten nodded her head and gestured towards the house where they could talk more openly for the time being, they had time to catch up a bit before Hideki returned.

* * *

Hideki's heart pounded in his chest as he ran towards his sensei's home, a stitch formed in his side but he didn't slow his pace. He skidded to a stop in front of the small, modest home. He didn't even knock, but barged into his sensei's home uninvited. The annoyed smirk on his sensei's face wilted as his pupil spurted forth the details of his intrusion.

"This strange shinobi appeared and called my mother by a strange name, she sent me here to bring you back with me.." He was gasping for air by the time he finished, his hands resting on his wobbly knees.

His sensei nodded grimly, already strapping his kunai holster onto his leg. They left the house without another word spoken between them.

* * *

Tenten glanced up at her former teammate over her glass of tea, but her teeth were clenched into a sneer. She loved her teammate, he was like a brother..but what he was proposing to her was impossible.

"I can't go back Lee," Her eyes locked with his pleading ones. "They will try to take Hideki from me and I can't let that happen."

"Hinata-sama would never do such a thing!" The boisterous ninja exclaimed, his hands hitting the tabletop sharply. "You know she would accept you both into the clan with no problem-"

"I don't know anything of the sort!" She nearly screamed, her tears threatening to fall.

"I can't leave this village knowing that I'm leaving you behind, please Tenten, you must return with me."

She sighed as she set her cup down, "I can't."

She knew the expression he held on his face, she had seen it a million times when their deranged sensei had given them the order to run around Konoha 300 times. He was overflowing with determination, she also knew that it would be almost impossible to stop him were he to try and make her leave by force.

"Then you leave me no choice.." Lee said huskily, his eyes growing dark as he slipped from friend to foe. She knew he wouldn't hurt her purposely, but she knew that he would do anything in his power to 'persuade' her to leave with him. Her only hope rested in Hideki and if he could get to Ikuto in time..

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**Okay tell me what you think...I know it took a while...and I'm sorry. I hope this doesn't pale in comparison to the first.**

**Leave a review of any kind. :)**


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